ON GLOBALIZATION AND MIGRATION

An appreciation of current trends in the global economy is critical to understanding immigration patterns. In recent years, the term “globalization” has been used to describe a new era of international economic integration. Implicit in this term is the idea that the breakdown of barriers between nations facilitates the flow of goods, information, and technology across borders. Nonetheless, in recent decades, the historic divide between rich northern and poor southern nations had deepened as a result of global economic shifts.

Globalization has allowed the U.S. and other powerful nations to build an institutional framework that regulates international trade and development on terms favorable to themselves. These institutions, such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization, have overseen a lowering of trade barriers worldwide and have engineered massive shifts in the economies of poorer nations. Development policies that hinge on creating a profitable environment for foreign investment have wrought huge social, economic, and environmental changes while workers increasingly compete across borders in a “race to the bottom” to attract foreign investment by working for lower wages.

This divide is also reflected within countries like the U.S., where the gap between rich and poor is widening. In the U.S., the domestic impact of globalization has led to economic, social and environmental changes that mirror international patterns. Median hourly wages have steadily fallen as the economy has become more “globalized,” and domestic policies focus on reducing social and environmental protections for the most vulnerable – while creating conditions ripe for corporations to consolidate their power. The disparity between those at the top of the economic strata and those at the bottom is increasing exponentially – in 1999, it was estimated that 84.6% of the nation’s wealth was held in the hands of the top 20% of the U.S. population. Meanwhile, the bottom 20% held just 0.5% of the wealth.

Source: the National Network for Immigration and Refugee Rights’ Bridge Curriculum, www.nnirr.org.

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